


Cursed

by HypnosThanatosTwin



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canon mostly applies, F/M, Greek Mythology - Freeform, M/M, Reincarnation, cursed God's, light multiple personality disorder
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-10
Updated: 2013-01-12
Packaged: 2017-11-24 23:56:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/632921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HypnosThanatosTwin/pseuds/HypnosThanatosTwin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And Arthur has to stop himself calling Eames Morpheus, because everytime he slipped, since the first time he actually told him, Eames is overjoyed to have found him and furious that Arthur hadn't told him before and Arthur's traitorous heart starts to hope, just to break in the morning, when Eames wakes with a killer headache and doesn't remember.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Prologue**

Arthur had always been himself and someone else. As long as he could remember, and he could remember thousands of years in every reincarnation he was born into, he had been two. There was he himself, soft around the edges, warm and caring with a hint of danger, and then there was the other, hard, calculating, fast with his decisions and slightly cold. He was Him and not, just like Him was He and not. They had had many names over the centuries, and most of them no-one remembered, but the one that still stood in the books of history was from a time when he had not been bound to the mortal realm. When he was a thought on the wind and his Other had been able to be anywhere at once. It was before he had been captured and cursed to live again and again, his powers mostly bound and not of use. But once upon a time he had been a God. Once upon a time he had been called Hypnos and the Other had been called Thanatos and they had been children of Hades realm.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Eames looked down at the device that was said to be able to connect peoples dreams and make them lucid and controllable by the dreamer. His heart beat in his chest to a staccato that suggested that it wanted to jump right out of his throat at the mere thought of the possibility. To have even a tiny amount of his former power back in his hands, it was a dreadful hope.

There had been times, ages ago, millennia, when he had drifted through the sleeping mind of all the people, creating worlds and tales no-one could ever imagine. A time long ago, when he had been born out of pure imagination, when he had loved his father and uncle. Before he had been banned and tossed into the mortal plains to live again and again. Before, when he had been called Morpheus and had been a God from Hades lands.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

In some lifetimes they met the others. Arthur remembers living with Styx during the eight-hundreds, they had had a small farm in south-east Asia just outside of the reaches of the villages around them. He remembers finding one of the Cerberus brothers in an asylum in the nineteenth century, the once fierce eyes empty without the company of his brothers, without the presence of the ones that he had shared one body with since his creation and had been forcibly isolated from after the curse. Out of all of them, the curse had been most harsh on the brothers.

But now, with the world being so much smaller, with ways of communications all over the globe, out in the open where everybody, everywhere could see, Arthur had at least managed to get that aspect handled. He had brought all three of them together nine years ago and they were doing so much better now that they were together and had made themselves a spot they would always return to in their next reincarnation.

Arthur hadn't stayed with them. Both hearts in his chest, his and the Others, were still calling for someone. Someone they feared had simply died ages ago and never been reborn, because they hadn't found him and none of the others had met him over the centuries. But still the hope remained.

The PASIV device came into existence and Arthur was eager to be involved. It was something he knew Morpheus would have loved, and he as Hypnos enjoyed the rush and the glimpse of his powers he regained down in the dream. Though it was Thanatos, who would be in control of their body in most of the jobs, after the dream-society went underground and started their thievery and research in the shadows of companies and governments. He didn't mind living a life of crime, if he learned one thing in all of his years it was that he will never truly die, no matter if he was a saint or a sinner in the eyes of society and their Gods.

He soon became one of the most revered Point Men in the business and with his reputation being whispered in frightened voices and sneering grimaces, he met Mal and Dominic Cobb. Mal who was one of theirs, but didn't remember. She just frowned and laughed as if it was a joke as he called her Hecate, and he let it go, knowing it was better this way. Sometimes, in his darker moments, he wishes he wouldn't remember. 

And after years of working for the Cobbs and with other teams all around the globe, growing out of his adolescent body, into a man, he is introduced to Eames by Mal.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The kid Mal introduces as the best Point Man she has ever seen is maybe twenty-two. He looks a little older in his sharply pressed suit, which cut is belying its expensiveness. Surprisingly he doesn't look like a boy playing dress up in his fathers clothes, but like a man, comfortable and confident. Though there is a slight expression of shock and surprise flickering over his face as they shake hands, it leaves as soon as it appears and they get down to business.

Five minutes into the discussion, Eames is starting to kind of hate Arthur. Thirty minutes in he is taking up the challenge and meets up with the enormous intellect that is hiding behind those dark, mysterious eyes. There is a moment, when he notices Mal and Cobb leaving the room and Arthur is noticing as well. A lightening quick smile crosses Arthur's features and dimples carve themselves into his cheeks for a split second, making him appear all of twelve. It is that moment Eames remembers most of all, years later.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- End of Prologue -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, tell me what you think of this. 
> 
> I have no beta, so all mistakes are mine and I have no idea what I'm doing, sooo apologies for that. If anybody wants to look at all the God's from Hades realm here's one of the lists I used: http://www.theoi.com/greek-mythology/underworld-gods.html


	2. Loss and Fear

**First Chapter: Loss and Fear**

“Mal killed herself.” the voice over the phone was strict and slightly broken. “She wanted to wake up.” was the next sentence he heard and the breath he had been holding in was leaving his body in one rush.

“I need you.” was all he could press out between his teeth and if his voice sounded entirely broken and desperate, he didn't care. “I need you here with me.”

“Yes.” it was rushed and full of something dark and hopeful. “I'm already at the airport, I'll be there as soon as I can.” Eames didn't think he had ever heard Arthur's voice filled with so many conflicting emotions. He nodded.

“I'll be waiting.” was all he said and then ended the call before collapsing onto the floor of his kitchen.

She was dead. He should be used to it by now. They would always leave. They would always die. But he loved them nevertheless and it always, always broke his heart in the end. But Arthur was on his way. Beautiful, broken Arthur, whom he loved and hated and loved. Eames knew he would someday, someday probably soon, lose Arthur as well, but for now he would try to get through this loss and cling to everything he had left.

A few hours later he had managed to drag himself to his bed. Now and then a tear was still sliding down his cheek, but Eames just let it drop into the sheets. Arthur should be arriving pretty soon. It had been six years now, since he was introduced to Arthur by Mal. For two years after that they had worked closely together, discovering new aspects of PASIV induced dreams, developing strategies and building up their resistance against mind invasion. Outside, in the real world, Arthur had remained rather distant the first months, but in the dreams he sometimes slipped out of his cold demeanour and into an entirely different character. It took Eames nine months to lure that character out into the open on the outside, but after that he saw Arthur relaxed and warm sometimes, though the slight touch of intimidation that the Point Man carried around him like a shield, never really disappeared.

Arthur was a broken thing and Eames didn't mean that metaphorically. There were literally two sides to Arthur that were drastically different to each other, one cold, cruel and calculating and the other caring, warm and soft around the edges. It weren't just masks, like Eames had thought in the beginning, but different personalities; because sometimes Arthur looks at him in question when Eames mentions something they had done while Arthur had been the Other. He remembers pretty quickly, but he didn't just then. They don't really talk about it. They both have too many things they don't want to talk about and Eames doesn't think Arthur would believe even half of what Eames might want to tell him.

In the end, they communicated more with their actions than with their words. Words between them was bickering and teasing and fights with words that cut and lullabies that soothed away the dark maelstrom of the world outside of them. The things that were important was that Arthur had come to him the first time they had worked apart again and the job had turned up to be a total screw-up and had killed every one of the assassins that had been on Eames' ass, sending a message to the underworld that still sticked. What mattered was that Eames had left the most lucrative job he had ever gotten towards that point in time, to fly out to New Zealand and get Arthur out of some governments containment chamber, read torture room, and then burn everything and everyone else in that building to the ground.

And now Eames was afraid. Because Mal was dead. Eames hasn't got a lot of friends, least of all people he would do anything for. Mal had been one of them, because she had taken him in after she had found him at his lowest point in this life. She had been a sister, a mother and a best friend. After getting to know Arthur, after falling deeper and deeper into the trap that is the Point Man, Mal became a focus. Something to hold onto, so that his ever-growing obsession with a certain Point Man wouldn't get out of hand. Because Mal was whole and Arthur was broken and now she had broken because of a device that had brought him the exhilaration of regaining a fracture of his former powers. He was afraid because if Arthur ever died...

The sound of a key slipping into the lock of the front door stopped him from having to finish that thought as he rushed to greet Arthur. The man looked exhausted, his eyes slightly red from crying, his body as tense as a violin string and his aura one of defeat. As soon as Eames reached for him Arthur collapsed into the Forgers arms, making Eames almost stumble as he threw the door closed and wrapped his arms around the slighter man.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Arthur held onto Eames with the strength of a drowning man. 

“I was watching the kids.” he said, his voice choking on suppressed sobs. “Eames, I was watching the kids and -, there was the call. I- I had to tell them.” the arms around him got tighter and he sank deeper into them. 

God, had he been relieved when Eames asked him to come. He wouldn't get through this intact without the Forger. There was a shuddered breath against his hair and a kiss against the side of his head soon followed. They were swaying slowly. He couldn't get Phillipa's face out of his head, the three year old far more knowing than she should be at her age. And Mal was dead. She was dead. The part of him that was the God of death had felt it the moment it happened and had known, she was not going to be reincarnated again. She was gone forever. He had thought that he would feel relief at that discovery, but he had seen into the faces of those children, one not understanding what he was saying and the other understanding too well and trying to deny it. And further, he was terrified that it could happen to Eames.

He was filled with the fear of losing the one thing he had finally found after millennia of thinking it had been gone for a long time. Because Mal hadn't remembered being Hecate, hadn't remembered any of her former lives and Eames...

Arthur had told Eames once, in the beginning, his heart alight with hope and joy, that he knew that Eames was Morpheus because he himself was Hypnos and Thanatos. He had explained that after the curse, the brother Gods of sleep and death had found themselves in just one body and it had been so in every reincarnation since. Eames had been disbelieving and shocked, but in the end hilariously happy at having found them as well. They had talked so much about what had happened to them after the curse and had slipped into sleep in the early morning hours and had only regained consciousness in the late afternoon, were Arthur had to experience the real curse that had been put on them. 

Eames couldn't remember. He could remember Arthur, he could remember that they had talked all night, but it was through a haze and he had no idea what they had talked about. He had blamed it on a massive hangover, though they hadn't drunk much, but how else would Eames have gained the splitting headache, making him sensitive to light and nauseous for the rest of the day. Arthur had purposely tried one more time since then, and other times he had slipped up, but it had always been the same. Eames didn't remember either Hypnos, nor Thanatos, after he had fallen asleep.

It had been breaking him in the beginning. It had taken a while for him to come to term with this unexpected half-reunion and in the end it had been his traitorous heart and his brothers practicality that had decided that he would stay despite the inability to be fully himself with Eames. In the end it hadn't mattered either way, because he wouldn't give up their bickering and teasing and tremendous fights with the Forger for anything. They wouldn't want to give up the knowledge that Eames had rescued and avenged them when they had been captured and unable to escape on their own. 

And now Mal was dead and she couldn't remember, and Eames always forgets, and Arthur is horrified at the thought slipping into his mind that maybe this is Eames last reincarnation as well, that he might never meet him again in any of his next lives. It only makes him try to hold on tighter.

They end up sprawled together on Eames bed, curled around each other, shivering with grief and fear and sharing relatively chaste kisses of reassurance that the other was there and alive, until they fell into exhausted sleep much later. Arthur dreams for the first time in years that night and he knows it's because of Eames in his arms. They're not pleasant dreams but they are better than none and hope settles back into his heart that it will get better. 

When he awakes first in the middle of the night, only the street lamps from below illuminating the room, he can't help himself whispering to the sleeping form of one of his creations.

“I need you, too.” he whispers and Thanatos is stirring in the back of his mind, awakening as well and coming to the fore. “Because without you, even the hope of you, eternal life would have been and would be unbearable.” Arthur slips even closer to Eames and closes his eyes again, slipping into dreamless sleep this time.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-End Chapter One-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, it's 3.30 am in my time zone and I just finished. This is probably riddled with typos and mistakes, but I will go over the chapter in the morning again, now I just want to sleep :)
> 
> Otherwise, I hope you like it. Next chapter may be taking a while, or not, really depends all on my muse, we'll see, and now I'll stop rambling and leave you to decide on whether or not you want to leave a comment or kudo :) Good night.
> 
> ctn.: so, I went over it and tried to edit, no idea if it sticks :) If I missed anything too horrible, please tell me.


End file.
